The “Monotheism” Interviews: Heiser

November 12, 2011

David Burnett emailed to confirm that the interviews with various scholars on various questions about “monotheism” in biblical traditions are now appearing. Here’s the link to the first one, Michael Heiser on evidence from the Hebrew Bible and second-temple Jewish texts.

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I also like Heisler’s remarks. Perhaps it is time that we stop trying to force a modern interpretation onto the scriptures and seek to understand what they anciently believed on the subject.

It has been very clear to me for many years that we’re talking about a lot of gods in the OT that were not just idols, but actual beings. Good to see some strong proponents trying to flesh out these ideas. That Elohim describes more of a place (divine council, heaven, etc) than an actual attribute makes a lot of sense.

I couldn’t agree more [with Heiser’s views], and another piece of evidence is the fact that the Biblical authors used modifiers such as “Almighty God” and “Most High God” which seems unnecessary if elohim/el expressed the same meaning.